Organiser of Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong urges would-be participants to adopt protesters’ ‘be water’ strategy if event is banned

The organiser of the annual vigil in Hong Kong to mourn the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has asked would-be participants to adopt the “be water” strategy used in anti-government protests, amid concerns the event will be banned this year due to coronavirus controls.

The public appeal made on Wednesday by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China came a day after the city’s government announced it would extend the restriction on gatherings of more than eight people to June 4, the anniversary of the crackdown.

“It is very clear that they have the political objective of suppressing gatherings in Hong Kong,” said veteran pan-democrat Lee Cheuk-yan, who chairs the alliance.

Lee pointed out the government had extended the restriction at a time it was reopening schools and allowing larger religious gatherings.

Secretary of Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee on Tuesday rejected accusations that extending the restriction was a political decision, saying public health was the only concern.

June 4 marks the 31st anniversary of the crackdown in Beijing, and the Hong Kong vigil – which has been held for the past three decades in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay – is the only large-scale public gathering on Chinese soil to commemorate it.

Lee said police and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department had yet to respond to the alliance’s application to hold the vigil, but he pledged to still light candles in Victoria Park.

“We are calling upon people in Hong Kong to ‘be water’ and continue to commemorate the massacre in their own spontaneous ways,” Lee said, referring to the famous saying of the late martial arts star Bruce Lee that became a clarion call for protesters adopting guerilla-style tactics over the past year.

Mak Hoi-wah, a standing committee member of the alliance, said one of the plans under discussion with district councillors was to distribute candles on the streets, and then call upon people to light them together at 8pm.

Meanwhile, the alliance’s June 4 museum – which had been closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic – has reopened its doors to visitors with a new exhibition that connects the student-led democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989 to the anti-government movement sparked by the now- withdrawn extradition bill last June.

The modes of the two movements, publicity materials used, timelines and the participants’ stories were put up for comparison.

Both movements, across two generations and cities, were fighting for “truth, freedom and life” under the same authoritarian regime, the alliance said, adding that the suppression, violence and smears faced by the protesters were all very similar.

Rising localism among the youth of Hong Kong over the past few years had sparked a debate over the need to commemorate the June 4 crackdown.

Tiananmen vigil in doubt despite easing of social-distancing rules

Lee from the alliance said the ongoing protests would make youngsters understand they actually shared common ground with the Tiananmen Square demonstrators in 1989.

“There is no way to turn a blind eye to the authoritarian regime,” he said. “In the past 31 years, what we are doing is to connect Chinese people with us, and make changes to the regime.”